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Each spring, homeowners discover dead, brown foliage on their evergreen plants. Often mistaken for diseases, most of these dead areas are the result of cold damage.

Even with a seemingly mild winter, evergreens can be susceptible to an injury known as winter burn. Although the Augusta area does not see as much winter injury as some colder parts of the country, newly transplanted plants and young evergreens experience their fair share of cold damage.

A visit to a prosthetics program persuaded Lakeside High School STAR student Emma Blume to pursue an education in biomedical engineering.

But it was Charlotte Smith, a teacher at Lakeside, who got Blume interested in biology in the first place.

“She’s so dedicated to her students,” Blume said, explaining why she chose Smith as her STAR teacher. “She makes learning fun. She’s such a good teacher. She inspired me to realize that biology really was something I love, and that I needed to find a career in that field.”

But tics associated with his Tourette’s syndrome make him the target for bullies.

“They don’t understand it,” Matt said. “It’s what makes me, me. I understand that they think it’s different. It’s not that big of a deal.”

Matt’s tics – uncontrollable movements often exacerbated by stress – include rapid eye blinking, hand-rolling and knuckle-cracking. He said it’s simply his brain sending to his muscles messages that he can’t control.

With their media center converted into the deck of the Titanic, Greenbrier Middle School sixth-graders on Wednesday were transported back in time to April 14, 1912, the night the famous ship sank.

The pupils, participants in the school’s achievement program, offered this experience by holding the “Titanic Tea,” a reenactment that chronicles the last dinner on the ship before it struck an iceberg.

A man wanted for convenience-store robberies in Columbia and Richmond counties was arrested early Thursday.

Khatrell Rashon Harris, 21, of Bald Eagle Way in River­vdale, Ga., was arrested in Rich­mond County and was charged with three counts of armed robbery, robbery by force, aggravated battery, two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He’s being held in the Richmond County jail without bond, according to jail records.

• A Harlem High School student went before the school system hearing officer Feb. 26 for causing a school disruption and was given out-of-school suspension and in-school suspension for 15 days.

• A Harlem High student went before the hearing officer Feb. 26 on a charge of public intoxication (drugs) and was given long-term suspension with the option to attend the Columbia County Alternative School for the remainder of the 2012-13 school year.

The inaugural River Island Art Show will be held 6-9 p.m. Friday, March 15, at River Island clubhouse, 1570 River Island Parkway, Evans, with art, wine and food, said Linda Lavigne, an organizer of the free show and one of 16 local artists whose paintings will be displayed.

The idea to hold the show came about when Amy Hattaway and her mother, Susan Porterfield, both artists who will be featured in the show, decided the event would be a great way to promote River Island and the local artists.

Being named Grovetown High School’s STAR student is gratifying to Megan Murphy.

“It means a lot that I can compete with other people on a bigger level, because I think a lot of time my school is kind of looked down upon,” said Murphy. “It just means a lot that all my hard work pays off.”